VOA文化艺术2024--Brazilian Artist's Mural Shows Climate Disasters

Brazilian artist and activist¹ Mundano recently used some unusual substances to paint a picture on a building in Sao Paulo. The paint included materials, such as ash and mud, collected from natural disasters.

Mundano created the mural to highlight the issue of climate change. Extreme weather events have been causing destruction across Brazil.

The mural is very large - over 30 meters high and 48 meters wide. The artist used ash from wildfires and mud from floods. His painting shows the gray remains² of trees on a brown land so dry it is cracked. The picture represents the deforestation and severe drought in the Amazon rainforest.

The mural also shows Indigenous³ activist Alessandra Korap wearing a circle of flowers around her head. She holds a sign that says: "Stop the destruction #keepyourpromise." The artist says those messages are directed to Cargill, a massive soybean producer based in the United States.

Soy farming is one of the biggest causes of deforestation in the Amazon.

Cargill says on its website that it will eliminate deforestation from its supply chain in Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay by 2025.

Mundano is seeking to hold the company accountable.

"We are tired of being a country, a continent where we and the natural resources we have here are exploited. ... We have to regenerate⁴ our planet instead of destroying it," the artist said in an interview.

Cargill did not immediately answer a request for comment.

Over the past few months, human-caused wildfires have severely⁵ damaged protected places in the Amazon area. The fires burned in parts of both the large Cerrado savanna⁶ and the world's largest tropical wetland, the Pantanal.

Smoke spread over a very large area and affected⁷ the air quality in some Brazilian cities.­

Drought has caused a critical situation nationwide. Weather predictions show that this will continue in much of the country through at least the rest of October. This information comes from Cemaden, Brazil's disaster warning center.

Droughts & floods

On October 22, the depth of the Amazon's Negro River measured 12.46 meters, representing a small increase from 10 days earlier. At that time, the river was at its lowest point since measurements started 122 years ago.

And this last reported measure is still about 6 meters below normal for the same date in earlier years.

Rivers in Brazil's Amazon always rise and fall with its rainy and dry seasons. But the dry season this year has been much worse than usual.

Earlier this year, a severe flood in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul killed more than 180 people, affected over 2 million people, and destroyed city communities.

Mundano, who calls himself an "artivist" (a combination of "artist and activist), used mud from that flood to create the new mural. The activist group Movement of People Affected by Dams collected the materials.

Mundano also used ashes from Brazil's fires in the Atlantic Forest, the Pantanal, and the Cerrado. He also used earth found in waste containers in Sao Paulo and clay collected from the Sawre Muybu Indigenous land in the Amazon, where Alessandra Korap is from.

"From floods to droughts, everything is connected!" Mundano said recently in an Instagram post. He included a video showing the mural in Sao Paulo. The artist said it is his biggest mural ever.

Three years ago, he used ash from the Amazon to create a similar mural in Sao Paulo. That work showed a firefighter standing⁸ in deforested areas. It also showed a cow farm and trucks loaded with cut trees.

Words in This Story

cracked - adj. broken (as by a sharp blow) so that the surface is fissured⁹

drought - n. a long period of dry weather

eliminate - v. to put an end to or get rid of

supply chain - n. the chain of processes, businesses, etc. by which a commodity is produced and distributed : the companies, materials, and systems involved in manufacturing and delivering goods

accountable - adj. responsible for giving an account such as one's action

exploit - v. to make use of meanly or unfairly for one's own advantage

savanna - n. a tropical or subtropical grassland¹⁰ (as of eastern Africa or northern South America) containing scattered¹¹ trees and drought-resistant undergrowth

tropical - adj. of, being, or characteristic of a region or climate that is frost-free with temperatures high enough to support year-round plant growth given sufficient moisture

1 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

2 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

3 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

4 regenerate   

vt.使恢复，使新生；vi.恢复，再生；adj.恢复的

参考例句：

• Their aim is to regenerate British industry.他们的目的是复兴英国的工业。
• Although it is not easy,you have the power to regenerate your life.尽管这不容易，但你有使生活重获新生的能力。

5 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

6 savanna   

n.大草原

参考例句：

• The savanna is also the home of meat-eaters--the lion,leopard,and hyena who feed on the grasseaters.大草原也是食肉动物的家乡--狮子、豹、鬣狗--它们都是以草食动物维持生命的。
• They sped upon velvet wheels across an exhilarant savanna.他们的马车轻捷地穿过一片令人赏心悦目的大草原。

7 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

8 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

9 fissured   

adj.裂缝的v.裂开( fissure的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• South African vine having a massive rootstock covered with deeply fissured bark. 南非藤蔓植物，有很大的根状茎，皮上有很深的裂纹。 来自互联网
• The concentrated leakage passage in fissured rock is studied with dummy heat source method. 利用虚拟热源法研究坝基裂隙岩体中存在的集中渗漏通道。 来自互联网

10 grassland   

n.牧场，草地，草原

参考例句：

• There is a reach of grassland in the distance.远处是连绵一片的草原。
• The snowstorm swept the vast expanse of grassland.暴风雪袭击了辽阔的草原。

11 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。